COSMIC RAYS.
EXPERIMENTS UNDERGROUND,
On a disused platform on the London Underground Railway, unknown to the passengers .'who throng Holborn station, scientists have been .probing one of the jti ofoundest problems of science. i The London Passenger Transport Board gave Professor P. M. Blackett, the discoverer of the positive electron, and his assistants from Birkbeck College, special permission to use- the Underground for their experiments with the cosmic rays.
Using a hut on the disused platform of the Aldwych branch line, the investigators set up their delicate instruments and began to search for evidence of the mysterious messengers from 6pace.
Cosmic rays are born somewhere in space, and maintain a constant barrage of the earth. They are many times more penetrating than the rays of radium. They can pass through obstacles which defeat other rays, and must "riddle" our bodies without apparent harm.
The tube experiments were made at a depth equal to 105 ft of water. And the results obtained by the investigators showed that even at that depth the rays were as vigorous as 011 the surface.
So there is one type of aerial bombardment from which the underground offers no protection.
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Bibliographic details
Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 57, 7 March 1936, Page 10 (Supplement)
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194COSMIC RAYS. Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 57, 7 March 1936, Page 10 (Supplement)
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